Daring Baker's January challenge: scones (or biscuits for Americans)

I found out about the Daring Bakers only a few weeks ago. One challenge, once a month. Love the idea! I instantly knew I wanted to be a part of the group so I signed up.  I wanted to start with the January challenge but I didn't really get accepted until yesterday so I couldn't access the private forums, and thus do the recipe, until then.

Audax Artifex was the host and, what a host! She gave all the tiny details to make the scones absolutely perfect. I baked them yesterday night and I chose to make the basic scones mainly because I didn't have the other ingredients. I first had doubts about the temperature of the oven (240º according to the recipe) so what I did was that I stared at the oven the whole time. It took only 8 minutes but the temperature was totally right. 



They’re easy, quick to make and just perfect: both size and flavor so go ahead and make them! You can find the recipe here.

My Sunday tribute to Jamie Oliver

My mom has established a new rule at home. She’ll make lunch every Saturday but my brother, my father and I will each have to cook for one Sunday’s meal (so once every three weeks it'll be my turn). I think it’s fair and a great idea but… lets see how long that keeps up!

Today it was my turn and I had been thinking what to make. Then I remembered. You’ve probably heard about Jamie’s last book. It was awarded as one of the five worst cookbooks of the year basically because of the "heart attack" meatball sandwich recipe… so what? I don’t think that was at all his idea and even so he’s still a great cook. He has done a very important job to attain healthy food at schools. I think this is just sort of a payback for all he’s said about American's way of eating.

Anyhow I decided I wanted this Sunday lunch to be my own tribute to Jamie Oliver because I still love him no matter what. I actually only have one of his books (Jamie does…) and I had only tried a couple of recipes so this was the prefect chance to use it. And these were my choices:

We started off with the Italian Tomato and Basil Salad very easy to make. I actually forgot top it up with the feta cheese but it still tasted great.

As a main dish we had the Swedish Meatballs where I substituted the double cream for crème fraîche because I had no idea where to find the first one! While cooking this recipe I’ve learned that I am horrible at choosing good quality meat. However the sauce and the blackberry jam helped the whole dish and it turned out to be pretty good. I also added some cous cous on the bottom. This is the only recipe I can actually help you get because it's published here. 

To finish up I went for a Crème Caramel with Roasted Persimmons. The first mistake here was not to trust myself. I left the Crème Caramel in the oven for 40 minutes like Jamie said. I thought it probably needed a bit more but I decided to trust his recipe. I ended up with a very good tasting crème that didn’t really hold up together. And as for the roasted persimmons I changed them for mangos because I couldn’t find any persimmons or apricots or peaches. The result was very good although the mango didn´t really roast.

Pink Ombre Swirl Cake (Glorious Treats)

I had big plans for last Monday night. I was going to do this pink ombre swirl cake for a birthday. And I did. But it didn’t turn out quite like I had planned. It was a beautiful cake and it had this wonderful vanilla taste that reminded me of American cupcakes. But I just wanted it to be better. Compared to Glorious Treat’s cake mine kind of… well, sucked!  I changed some stuff like, instead of six; I did three layers because I didn’t have enough colors to make them. Besides, the flowers in the side just didn’t hold up so I ended up having to flatten it. Also, I would have needed just a tiny bit more of the American buttercream frosting to cover the whole cake (to make it I also used cream cheese which was an option Glory proposed and I loved it!)

Still I think this will be my go-to cake or cupcake from now on. It was just sooooo good! 

4 cupcakes and Puerto's birthday

So today is Puerto's birthday, a very good friend of mine. We've had a small birthday lunch at my place and I wanted to make a little something for dessert (Friday we'll have the actual celebration and I'll make a huge cake but until then we needed something). I had two problems though: first, I'm in the middle of my exams and thus, I don't have that much time to bake (although I do anyway) and second, I knew there would only be four people for lunch so I didn't want to make anything big. 

Searching through the web I found a recipe for exactly four cupcakes in the blog objetivocupcake. I thought it was a really good idea. Usually the recipes come for like 12 or more cupcakes and they only use one egg, so... how do you exactly divide that? 

The result was ok, but nothing that would get me saying "woooooooooooooow" and I would have needed just a tiny bit more of frosting. The other problem I had was that my dad ate the fourth cupcake this morning so that's the reason why the picture only has three cupcakes. So we had to share them (besides we ended up being six instead of four which left us with an even smaller portion for each one of us). 

What did I learn? Next time I'll just make the entire recipe of a good cupcake recipe, even if I end up with 30, because somebody will always eat them... Still, and looking at the bright side, at least that was good for our health!

Below you can find the recipe from objetivocupcake translated

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 70 gr. of sugar
• 60 gr. of all purpose flour
• 60 gr. of butter
• 1 tablespoon of sugarless cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 30-40 ml of milk

Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Prepare the baking pan.

Mix the milk with the vanilla extract in a jug. In a bowl mix the flour, the cocoa powder and the baking powder. In a separate bowl beat the butter with the sugar until the mix is soft. Add the egg. Mix and add the flour mix and, after that, the milk. Pour the mix in the baking pan and put it in the oven for about 22-24 minutes. Let them out of the oven and let them cool for about 5 minutes before putting them in a cooling rack

For the buttercream, mix 60 gr. of butter without salt at room temperature, 115 gr. of confectioners’ sugar, ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract and one tablespoon of milk in a bowl. Mix it for about 4 minutes. Prepare a piping bag with a 1M Wilton tip and decorate.

Feliz cumpleaños Puerto :)

Cake pops

The first time I found Bakerella’s site I was completely stunned. I love baking, and sometimes I like to think I’m not that bad at it either, but creativity isn’t a part of me. That’s exactly why when I see somebody who has come up with an idea as good as that one I just wish I had thought of that! It’s like writing a book full of recipes… it’ll just never happen to me, I can copy, make a small variation but that’s all. Anyway, when I saw her blog I knew I had to have her book. I have to say that the book has great pictures of beautiful cake pops but you could definitely make them without it. But then again, you can also find all Dorie Greenspan’s recipes on the web and I still bought the book. My first attempt was the plain cake pops. I always start too big and I always fail so I wanted to play it safe. But I had no idea where to find candy coating in Spain; I called a few shops and found nothing so I decided to replace it with white chocolate and milk chocolate. In spite of that, I was still doing ok; at least I had all the ingredients I needed.

Then I found out I didn’t have lollipop sticks, only this kind of long wood sticks that kept breaking all the time. So I decided I would just cut them in half, and that went kind of better although some of the cake pops still broke up... I think I used too much frosting. To top it all up I had nothing to let the chocolate dry so I had to invent a thing to hold it all up with a cardboard box that wasn’t really efficient.

Still, and surprisingly most turned out quite good and the taste was amazing! I’m sure next time I’ll actually be able to present cool cake pops. Just wait.

Cinnamon rolls!

My ten months in the States besides making me gain a few more pounds (actually a lot) left me with tons of great memories. One of them is, and don’t laugh! a particular smell that reminds me of the malls in the US: cinnamon rolls. I remember the flavor of the hot roll in my mouth… it just tasted wonderfully and I always wanted more. So, in one of my nostalgic days I decided I would try to make these at home. I knew they would be hard and I definitely knew I would find a lot of bad recipes, and so the search began. After reading a few of the not-so-great recipes I came across orangette’s recipe in the boy who bakes blog.

The recipe was quite easy to make and delicious. But be aware that they don’t keep soft for too long, I froze some of them and I will just use them whenever I miss my great old days in Michigan (of course, and like it says in the blog, if you do freeze them you must do so without the topping!).

Rosy Poached Pears and Pistachio Tart/Tarta de peras escalfadas y pistacho

So not too long ago I discovered "Baking: from my home to yours". I know, a bit late but Amazon just opened up the spanish website a few months ago and I didn't really have access to a lot of baking books. And so I got it and fell inmediately in love. Since then I've baked quite a lot of the recipes in the book and it was through it that I discovered Tuesdays with Dorie, an amazing group that has been doing the entire book for over four years. I was disappointed because I had missed the whole thing and I would have loved to be a part of that but then, after a few months I found out that the club had finished the book and that they were about to start another one! I seriously didn’t care which book they would be doing, I just wanted to be in. So, next February, if everything goes as expected I will be starting “Baking with Julia” which I just got today :)

Ok so down to business: this recipe was chosen by my grandma, I think it would have never been my first choice, not in a million times but I asked her to pick a recipe from the book. She doesn't understand English so I told her that she could just look at the pictures and select one. And oh boy did she picked a great recipe!

The only problem that I had with this recipe at first is that I had to throw the pastry cream away. The recipe states that you should add about 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract and I am quite sure I didn't add much than that. But the cream just tasted like perfume. I have no idea if the thing was expired or what but I just couldn't eat it!. So in the end I did make the recipe but without the almond extract (I didn't want to risk it again) and it tasted amazingly good, seriously, I would have never guessed it!

You can find the recipe in I'll eat you I am sure that you will enjoy it!

No hace mucho que descubrí el libro "Baking: from my home to yours". Lo sé, un poco tarde pero hace poco que Amazon abrió la web española y realmente no había podido acceder a muchos libros de cocina antes. Y me enamoré al instante. Desde entonces he cocinado bastantes recetas en el libro y fue a través del mismo que me topé con Tuesdays With Dorie, un grupo genial que ha estado haciendo el libro entero durante cuatro años. Me dio mucha pena haberme perdido todo porque me hubiese encantado formar parte de ello pero unos pocos meses después descubrí que habían acabado el libro y ahora iban a empezar otro!!! Realmente no me importaba el libro que iban a hacer, simplemente quería formar parte. Así que, en Febrero, si todo va como espero empezaré el libro "Baking with Julia" que acabo de recibir hoy :)


Vale, manos a la obra: esta receta la eligió muy abuela, creo que nunca hubiese estado entre mis primeras elecciones pero le dije que escogiese una receta del libro. Como no entiende inglés le dije que mirase a las fotos y eligiese una. Y vaya que si eligió bien!!!

El único problema que tuve con esta receta al principio fue que tuve que tirar la crema pastelera a la basura. La receta dice que deberías añadir más o menos 1/4 cucharadita de extracto de almendra y estoy casi segura que no añadía más que eso. Sin embargo la crema tenía sabor a perfume. No sé si hice algo mal o si el bote estaba caducado pero no pude comerlo!! Así que al final hice la receta pero sin el extracto de vainilla (no quería volver a arriesgarme otra vez) y tenía un sabor increíble, en serio, nunca me lo hubiese imaginado!!

La receta está en el blog I'll eat you en inglés y aquí os pongo la traducción, seguro que la disfrutáis!

Ingredientes:

-Para la crema pastelera:

2/3 tazas de pistachos sin cáscara

7 cucharadas de azúcar

1/3 tazas de leche entera

4 yemas de huevo grandes

3 cucharadas de maizena

3/4 cucharadita de extracto de vainilla

2 cucharadas de mantequilla sin sal fría cortada en cuatro piezas

-Para las peras:

3 tazas de vino tinto afrutado

Piel de una naranja cortada en tiras largas

Piel de un limón cortado en tiras largas

3/4 taza de azúcar

5 peras medianas maduras pero firmes

-Para los pistachos caramelizados:

3 cucharadas de azúcar

2 cucharadas de agua

1/2 taza de pistachos sin cáscara

-Para la salsa (opcional)

Sirope de las peras

2 cucharadas de miel

-Cualquier masa quebrada para la base

Preparación:

-Para preparar la crema pastelera:

Picar los pistachos con 3 cucharadas de azúcar hasta que queden finamente picadas. Poner en una cacerola la leche y llevar a ebullición. Mientras se caliente la leche mezclar las otras 4 cucharadas de azúcar, las yemas y la maicena en un tazón. Cuando esté bien mezclado añadir el extracto de vainilla. Batiendo constantemente añadir 1/4 parte de la leche caliente a las yemas. Agregar la leche restante poco a poco. Vertir la mezcla en la cacerola, poner la olla a fuego medio y batir enérgicamente hasta que hierva. Después retirar la cacerola del fuego. Poner la crema en un recipiente, envolverlo con plástico, tapar y poner en la nevera de entre 4 horas a 4 días.

-Para preparar las peras:

Poner el vino, las cáscaras y el azúcar en una olla grande en la que quepan las peras y llevar a ebullición. Pelar las peras y de inmediato frotar con un limón para que no se oscurezcan. Poner las peras en la olla a fuego lento para que se reduzcan con el vino. Cortar un círculo con papel para cocinar que quepa dentro de la olla y presionar contra las peras, tapar parcialmente la olla y cocinar a fuego lento dando vueltas a las peras si es necesario para que estén coloreadas uniformemente. Comprobar que están tiernas pinchándolas con la punta de un cuchillo. Retirar del fuego y transferir las peras en un recipiente resistente al calor. Dejar enfriar. Se pueden guardar hasta 3 días.

-Para caramelizar los pistachos: 

Poner el azúcar y el agua en una pequeña cacerola a fuego medio-alto y revolver con una cuchara de madera para disolver el azúcar. Llevar a ebullición y cocinar sin revolver hasta que el azúcar ha llegado a un caramelo de color ámbar. Poner en un papel de horno los pistachos separados y mezclar con el azúcar distribuyéndolo lo mejor que se pueda. Cuando los pistachos estén fríos cortarlos en trocitos, mantenerlos en un lugar fresco y seco hasta que sea necesario.

-Para hacer la salsa opcional 30 minutas antes de montar la tarta, retirar las peras del jarabe. Poner el jarabe en una cacerola y llevar a ebullición. Añadir la miel y hervir hasta que el jarabe sea lo suficientemente grueso para cubrir una cuchara de metal. Vertir la mezcla en un recipiente y dejar reposar hasta que se necesite.

-Para montar la tarta cortar las peras longitudinalmente por la mitad. Colocar las peras la parte cortada hacia abajo. Cubrir con toallas de papel y dejar secar hasta que el exceso de líquido se absorba. Cuando las peras están secas, cortarlas longitudinalmente en 4 o 6 trozos. 

Extender la crema pastelera encima de la base de la tarta. Encima añadir las rodajas de la pera formando círculos concéntricos. Dispersar los pistachos caramelizados sobre la tarta y servir con la salsa de vino, si se desea. La tarta se puede cubrir y guardar en el refrigerador durante un máximo de 4 horas.